The misery of being a Philadelphia 76ers fan feels extra special today following a game two loss to the Knicks in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
In a head spinning finish on Monday night, the Sixers had the game all but won with 30 seconds remaining, and that's when things got a little crazy.
Thanks to a few (very) questionable calls down the stretch, Philadelphia saw their lead vanish in a matter of seconds.
Here's the sequence of how the final seconds played out
- With the Sixers leading 101-96 and 28 seconds remaining, Brunson hit a three to bring it to 101-99.
- With 27 seconds remaining, Kyle Lowry inbounded the ball to Tyrese Maxey who was fighting through a Brunson / Hart double team.
- Maxey hit the floor with 23.7 seconds left, and the ball was scooped up by Hart. DiVincenzo eventually hit a three-pointer with just 13.1 seconds remaining, putting the Knicks in front 102-101.
The Knicks would win the game 104-101.
Once the dust settled post-game, the NBA's reigning MVP (Joel Embiid), and Sixers Head Coach (Nick Nurse), had some choice words about the officiating down the stretch.
Joel Embiid on what he thought was multiple fouls against Tyrese Maxey
"Fucking unacceptable"
Nick Nurse Post Game Presser
"I called timeout. The referee looked right at me, and ignored me. Tyrese Maxey got the ball. I called timeout again, he ignored me."
After waiting all day for the NBA to publish the game's L2M (last 2 minutes officiating report), we finally have our answers.
The results from the L2M report for the play in question is as follows
- Brunson did pull on Maxey's jersey, and a foul should have been called.
- Hart did invade Maxey's space, making contact and causing him to fall to the floor, and a foul should have been called.
- Maxey's push-off on Hart was marginal and the no-call was correct.
- Nick Nurse should have been granted a time out, and he was not.
Did the Sixers make costly mistakes throughout the game? Absolutely.
They could have rebounded better, made their free throws, the list goes on.
But, at the end of the day, this feels like a moot point: Philadelphia did JUST enough to win the game.
Let's be perfectly clear, the Sixers should have won that game.
